hi guys.Just ordered a pair of HD 448's, my first expensive pair of headphones. I'm pretty excited. I'm glad I found this forum, because i am an audio noob who thought $30 Sony's were the best thing since sliced bread.any suggestions for a first song?? I can't wait for them to ship in.

Make sure you give them some time to burn in! It will be good to hear your impressions. Any track that is a little more laid back and sits well with a warm/dark sound signature should sound superb

Spot on review, imo. While the bass on HD448 extends quite well, they severely lack that bass impact so don't be fooled by Sennheiser's box description. In response to audionik, I really like listening to acoustic songs on Sennheiser's trademark warm/dark sound. Try Nirvana's The Man Who Sold The World.

Would a Fiio E5 make the lows better?

You could get a Digizoid ZO2. Never used one, but it's for boosting bass. Good reviews so far.

It'd be interesting to hear the results. I'm not convinced the e5 would help the lows out at all. The bass is just a little growly and bloated. What it really needs is improvement in texture before it even thinks about impact improvements, and I'm just not sure an amp can provide too much fixing to that problem. Do I find an improvement when I amp the hell of out it with the e9? Yes, but even that improvement doesn't change the inherent character of the drivers, it just adds a little more punch. It still carries that bit of a growl with it, and still isn't defined marvelously.
If the lows were impactful and textured, you'd be looking at close to a 300 dollar headphone in my book. I like the soft treble and dark, rich midranges just that much in this headphone, and that combo isn't even my ideal sound. I tend to prefer a little flatter, and more importantly, quick decay. I'm a bit of a detail head.
Still loving my HD448 years later

I just purchased my first decent headphones, being the HD448's. As for burning in, is it fine to use my music or should I use "pink noise"?

Listen to them as you burn them in.

I have been, I can already notice a change from when I first started listening

I feel like some of the bass is muffled or crackly or something. It sounds broken up and fragmented and just bad. When I heard these in the store I didn't have my mp3 player on me so I had to listen to some unsuitable music, although it was handling the bass just fine. It's definitely not all the bass. It can play songs just fine, but it doesn't seem to be able to handle some other songs (that aren't even bass "heavy", though the song itself does rely on the bass as much as any other instrument if not more) Does this improve with time? Does amping it stop/improve this or just improve the rest of the lower frequencies?

Does this happen on all songs? Does it only sound like that when you increase the volume? If yes, then it could be the amp in your source (MP3 player) distorting. That's funny though. They're rated at either 24 or 32 ohms (on Sennheiser datasheet it's 24 ohms) so your MP3 player should be able to handle it just fine. Try it with another source like your PC/Mac and report back with results.

Not all songs, no. It does seem to get worse if the volume is increased, but I don't think it's caused from high volume. I've been using my computer, and I've been fiddling with the iTunes EQ and I think it's the 64 or 125 or both bands. The box that came with mine says 32 ohms. Thanks for your replies Blue Boat.

I can't help any further since I don't have the HD448 (I have the HD438). For what it's worth, I didn't hear any distortion when I auditioned the two on my Sansa Clip+ media player. You should return them just to be safe.

I'm unsure. If I turn off the EQ, and put up the volume, the bass is fine, but if I put the EQ on with the lower bands raised, I get the distortion. I think it may be the EQ?

Oh. Interesting. I suppose it could be the EQ. Set it to 0 and slowly move up the bar. If you hear the sound gradually "distorting" as you turn it up, then it's most definitely the EQ.